I'm showing twenty-five brand new 5x5 inch paintings, each one for just 50 bucks! Great for gifts, and perfect shelf or desk art, although you can hang them too. Each one is a sturdy little 5x5 inch block, and fully Light Reactive! If you put it on your nightstand, you can watch it glow all night! :o)

(*note: Not the pieces listed above. Those are all sold paintings. I will be making BRAND NEW 5x5 inch paintings for this show.)

This is a really fun event!! Happening along with the Santiago Art District's monthly art walk. Lots of artists, and most importantly, DELICIOUS FOOD TRUCKS. Two words: Caprese Empanadas.

I was discussing life with a producer friend of mine recently, and the subject rolled around to acting. We have it in common. In fact that's how we met 14 years ago when we were both cast in a play. He didn't mean to stop either.

I don't think either one of us is comfortable saying we "stopped" doing anything. We simply started doing other things.

I loved creating with my hands, to make art that didn't exist before, and couldn't unless I made it. I felt like I was contributing something more important than just "my type" or "my look." I'm not responsible for what I look like, nor am I responsible for the script I might be reading. To create art, in my mind, required something more. Something from nothing. Something beautiful that I can take full credit for, something that requires my own mind.

A great performance is a rare and wonderful thing, but it's always a group effort. I do miss it. I adore the process of reading a script, highlighting my part, memorizing my lines, rehearsing rehearsing rehearsing. I love that thrill of being on stage with others and having to react and account for whatever someone else chooses to do in any given moment. It's hard. It's great.

But, I needed to know that I was capable of something else, that I was doing more than just standing in a long line of pretty girls. When people look at my paintings, they're not looking at me. They're looking at what I made. What I think.

Perhaps I was trying to prove something by my art. Maybe I still am.

Either way, I'm ready to come out now. I might define myself as a painter at this point, but I'm actually lots of things. There are many facets of my life that influence my paintings, and I think I'm ready to show them. I've been finding myself in the last decade, and I've discovered that I'm an artist.

The second of my Gen Kai series. This piece is done on three separate 24x36 inch canvases. Click each series to enlarge it.

1. natural lighting (near a sunny window)

2. artificial lighting (regular interior lighting)

3. combined uv and artificial lighting

4. uv lighting only (with a black light)

5. no light (glow in the dark)

I'm very proud of this one.

It's interesting that I began work on what I've been calling my "Japanese Fusion Paintings" the year before visiting Japan. We're specifically aiming to be in Japan during Sakura 2011, for all the cherry blossom festivities. Cherry blossoms are only peaking for about 2 weeks a year, so our timing involves a lot of hoping and estimating. Either way, I'm thrilled to experience them. They look like feathers or cotton candy or faery dust or something. I'm sure I'll want to paint more of them after seeing such fluffy pink magic in real life. In the meantime, I'll just have to dream about it.

This was not an easy painting to complete, and was entirely out of my comfort zone. Colin helped me a lot, and I jokingly referred to him as my "apprentice" because of the dirty work I put him through. I think he enjoyed it though, it's fun to get your hands all covered in modeling paste. Well, maybe not, but he was happy to help me. On many days, after working 12 hours on it, my hands simply wouldn't function anymore.

What's hard to see in these pictures is the way I made the blossoms to sparkle and glimmer as you walk past it through the room. I wanted it to be reminiscent of the way cherry blossoms flutter in the breeze.

I've been told that people eating in the dining room have been taking pictures of my art with their cell phones. Rad. :o)

Every single painting will be just $50. :oO If you've ever wanted an original painting of mine, this is the show for you! FIFTY! That's it! Each one is fully light reactive and on gallery wrapped canvas. Perfect shelf/desk/office/bookcase/nightstand art. Good for gifts too! FIFTY BUCKS PEOPLE!!

More details later, but I wanted to give you the heads up! Mark your calendars now.

The 5x5 reference (one of many that occurred in the series) happens at 2:44 in the above video. :o)

The first of my Gen Kai series. :o) This piece is done on four separate 12x36 inch canvases.

1. natural lighting (near a sunny window)

2. artificial lighting (regular interior lighting)

3. combined uv and artificial lighting

4. uv lighting only (with a black light)

5. no light (glow in the dark)

Oh, Gen Kai. :o)

This would be my first white painting. I'd been wanting to do something all white for a long time.

Before the fire burned down the entire front room of the restaurant, there had been a shoji window on this exact wall for decades. The head sushi chef mentioned this to me when we were there to hang the art, but of course I remembered. It was my inspiration for making this piece. Now there are shoji windows on both sides of the lobby. :o) (I didn't get a picture of the one facing the outside.) Also, the lobby area tends to get a bit dark (and romantic) at night, so I wanted something to brighten it up. It kind of feels like an outdoor space now. Maybe that's because I adorned their wall with a gigantic moon.

I've been calling these my "Japanese Fusion paintings" although Colin reminds me that in all likelihood I will make more like them outside of this series.

I have one more to show you this week, and then a few others later on. Make sure to stop by Gen Kai in Dana Point to see them in person!

Gen Kai has really great lunch specials and it's super crowded on weekends. They even had a sake tasting last Friday that I desperately wish I could have attended. Very happy they're back. :o)

Those who know us know that we've been on a self-improvement kick since, oh... 2002. It's not just the self-help meetings, and the self-help books, but a genuine desire to be on a path of betterment and personal growth. Even those who resent us for it could not say we aren't far better off than before. Subsisting on top ramen and leftover Chinese food from my job as a Chinese food delivery driver does not particularly make for adequate health or a desirable lifestyle. (Nor does smelling like Chinese food 24 hours a day. Yuck.) Hooray for being in your early 20s!

At some point during this, we realized that our lives as emotionally and financially broken people was not something we wanted to continue. So we started the slow and steady journey away from it.

We've learned over the years that those who resent us for this journey can suck it. That's right. There, I've said it.

I've started reading The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People again. I've started it at least twice before. Colin has read it. My favorite part of reading it now is seeing his notes in the margins and paragraphs he's highlighted. I try to pay special attention to those paragraphs.

We used to talk a lot about paradigm shifts at Immersion. [long story] That's where I first understood the concept. Altering the framework by which you view something in a profound and significant way. Relearning what you're seeing and experiencing.

I think I'm going through another personal shift.

I tend not to think of myself as a successful person, despite having various successes that I am fully appreciative of, and having others point out my successes to me often. This paradigm of myself has always been a bit shifty. Lately, with the increasing workload I have, I've been thinking about my situation a lot, and contemplating my future. I have many plans. I want (need) to know that I will be capable of accomplishing them. I need to change my view of myself so that it fits the future I am planning.

If I don't see that I'm strong, then I won't be.

So this is what I've been doing for the last two weeks. In my head, anyway. I've also been frantically painting, sketching, and planning fairly significant upcoming events. Many of my current, exciting, amazing plans don't involve direct means to make money. This confuses me, but I'm thrilled at the projects themselves. As an artist, it's been awhile since I've done much art-for-art's-sake. I've not only been re-energized, but I have a clearer vision of who I am, and where I'm going. I'm daunted by the work involved. I'm apprehensive about how I will have to change in order to make it all happen. But, when I look at the person I plan to be on the other side of it, I'm proud. I'm confident. I'm capable.